The signing ceremony was attended by Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis, California State Transportation Agency Secretary Toks Omishakin, and GO-Biz director Dee Dee Myers.

The event marked a milestone towards formalising a sister port relationship between the two operations, opening up opportunities for cooperation, the sharing of experience, and enhanced market connectivity to increase transshipment cargo volumes.

Vo Quoc Huy, chairman of the Board of Directors of Long An Port JSC said, "We value this partnership with the Port of Long Beach, a well-recognised port of choice on the global stage, as we embark on our journey to become an internationally renowned facility in Asia. We believe that this relationship will bring many benefits to both parties and hope to soon materialise the relationship through cooperation activities in fields that both parties are interested in."

Also at the event, Mario Cordero, CEO of the Port of Long Beach said, "We are glad to welcome the delegation from Long An province and the leaders of Dong Tam Group attending the CAPA conference, and are pleased to sign a letter of intent with Long An International Port."

"This signing ceremony demonstrates our desire to promote the signing of cooperation agreements not only for trade purposes but also towards sustainable development, emissions reduction, and environmental friendliness. Thus, we want to cooperate long-term so that Long An International Port and the Port of Long Beach can form a bridge to transship goods from Vietnam to the US and vice versa," added Cordero.

The Port of Long Beach, located in Southern California, is one of the world’s premier seaports, boasting six container terminals and an annual cargo turnover of $200 billion. It is ranked as the number one export seaport in the US and the 21^st busiest container cargo port in the world.

It is continuously upgrading its transportation capacity, aiming to increase its ability to handle containerised imports and exports flowing through the trans-Pacific trade route and maintain its position as one of the world’s biggest ports.

The Port of Long Beach

Within the framework of the programme, the Long An provincial delegation led by Vice Chairman of the People's Committee Nguyen Minh Lam and Vice Chairman of the People's Council Mai Van Nhieu aims to connect businesses in Vietnam and the US with a focus on industry, digital transformation, import-export services, logistics, and education, among others.

The cooperative relationship between Vietnam and the US has made significant progress and is increasingly deepening. Activities to promote economic cooperation have brought together many interested agencies, associations, and businesses from the two countries with the goal of promoting bilateral collaborations based on the new comprehensive strategic partnership.